<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Stay With Me by showmeyourtardis</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22699615">Stay With Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/showmeyourtardis/pseuds/showmeyourtardis'>showmeyourtardis</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Uncharted (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Comfort No Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Literal Sleeping Together, Sleeping Together, post Uncharted 1, uncharted - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 11:20:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,023</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22699615</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/showmeyourtardis/pseuds/showmeyourtardis</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After discovering El Dorado and barely surviving with their lives, Elena and Nate find it difficult to fall asleep alone. It gets a lot easier when they decide to share their worries (and their bed).</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nathan Drake/Elena Fisher</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stay With Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nate couldn’t sleep. He never really could. Usually, he passed out from exhaustion or from a fist to the skull. He had never quite mastered the skill of falling asleep in a huge bed, wrapped up warm, mind empty of thoughts. He got out of his hotel bed, tired of pretending, and headed to the balcony.</p>
<p>The town was dark beyond the small sconce on the balcony. The sea breeze ghosted under his t-shirt, he could hear the distance crash of waves. He wasn’t sure where they were exactly. By the time, he, Sully, and Elena had arrived here, they’d all been desperate to get off the boat and get onto solid land. Sully was good at finding his way to the nearest bar, and he had sailed them right up to a shore lined with beach bars.</p>
<p>Nate grabbed his journal and leaned his forearms on the railing along the edge of the balcony. He sketched Sully from the first bar they’d gone to. He remembered the grin on his face, a cigar clamped between his teeth. Each arm held out, brandishing beers bought with a handful of golden treasure. He sketched from memory, but he’d sketched Sully a lot over the years, he could practically do it blindfolded.</p>
<p>He had just finished adding a curl of cigar smoke when someone spoke, “What are you drawing?”</p>
<p>Nate jumped, almost dropping his pencil to its doom off the balcony. He looked towards the voice and found Elena sat on her balcony bench. She had her bare legs propped up on the table. She was in her pyjamas, a t-shirt and cotton shorts. It looked like she’d been watching him for a while.</p>
<p>“Can’t sleep either, huh?” Nate asked.</p>
<p>“I asked first.”</p>
<p>Nate crossed to her and held his journal over the gap between their balconies. She got up, placing a bottle of beer onto her table and took the journal. She leaned against the edge of the balcony as she studied the picture.</p>
<p>“Bartender Sully,” Nate said.</p>
<p>“You’re a good artist.”</p>
<p>Nate waved his hand dismissively, “Sully’s a good model. You should see the nude poses he does.”</p>
<p>Elena let out a soft laugh, “I don’t think I want to.”</p>
<p>“I ask again,” Nate said as she began to flip backwards through his journal, “can’t sleep either, huh?”</p>
<p>She looked at the ground, almost embarrassed. She rubbed the back of her neck, like there was a knot of tension she couldn’t loosen, “It just won’t come. I gave up trying after the third hour of lying in darkness picturing those… things.”</p>
<p>“Ah. The things,” Nate nodded sagely, “I know it won’t necessarily help, but El Dorado sank. There will be no more of those… <em>things.</em>”</p>
<p>“I know. I just didn’t really expect to need a nightlight after what was supposed to be a simple trip to find Francis Drake’s coffin.”</p>
<p>Elena kept flicking through his journal, pausing to admire his sketches of El Dorado, the skeletons he’d found, the treasure they’d discovered.</p>
<p>“Are the things keeping you awake too?”</p>
<p>“Me? Er, no.”</p>
<p>“Then what?” she asked, looking up and meeting his gaze.</p>
<p>Nate took a deep breath, suddenly nervous for some reason he couldn’t understand. He confessed, “I’ve never slept well. Not even when I was a kid.”</p>
<p>“Never?”</p>
<p>“Never. I just...” Nate struggled to explain the feelings that overwhelmed him when he sought sleep. Anxiety, fear, excitement, wanderlust, the feeling of missing out. “I just think too much.”</p>
<p>He let his confession sit in the silence for a while. He’d never really told anyone how much he struggled to sleep. Sully probably knew, but he’d never asked why Nate spent his nights wandering hotel halls, or keeping watch, or sitting by the bar.</p>
<p>“That’s why I draw,” he nodded to his journal and Elena’s gaze slipped back down to the pages. “When I was a kid, I used to sketch Francis Drake, and Henry Avery, and Lawrence of Arabia. Now, I sketch Sully.”</p>
<p>“And me,” Elena said, finding the most recent sketch he’d done of her.</p>
<p>“And you,” Nate agreed.</p>
<p>She turned the pages, finding more sketches of herself. Here, Elena wielding her gun expertly. Here, brandishing her camera with confidence. There, admiring the view. Elena laughing, Elena hugging Sully, Elena drinking, Elena, Elena, Elena. He watched her find his sketches, poring over the pencil lines like they held a secret.</p>
<p>He felt his fingers twitch to draw her now. She leaned against the rail of the balcony, her bare legs pale white in the moonlight, her t-shirt loose around the collar. Her hair was in a messy bun, strands of hair slipping out at the nape of her neck. He would smudge his pencil lines, make the sketch soft and quiet like the night.</p>
<p>“Where’d you go?” she asked, bringing him back to reality.</p>
<p>He accepted the journal she offered back to him, “Nowhere. I’m right here.”</p>
<p>She smiled and nodded her head at her beer bottle, “You want a drink?”</p>
<p>Nate tossed his journal to the bench on his balcony. “Step back.”</p>
<p>Elena did so, and Nate took a few steps back for a run up. He jumped from his balcony to hers, crossing the gap without a thought spared for the seven floors below them. Elena shook her head when he grinned triumphantly.</p>
<p>“You could’ve used the door,” she said.</p>
<p>“The door?” Nate asked indignantly, “What a terrible idea.”</p>
<p>She shook her head again but a smile crept onto her face. She disappeared into the room momentarily, and reappeared with two beers. She sat down, patted the seat next to her, and gave Nate his beer when he joined her.</p>
<p>He took a sip, sighing. Elena stretched her legs out again, propping her bare feet onto the table. Nate rested his arm on the back of the bench, feeling a muscle in his shoulder stretch and ache. Elena rolled her head back, the top of her hair brushing his arm.</p>
<p>“Where are we?” she asked.</p>
<p>“Who knows? I didn’t get a good look before Sully had dragged us into a bar.”</p>
<p>“Hey, that’s a point, where is he? He didn’t come back to the hotel.”</p>
<p>Nate tilted his mouth into a slight smile, “Oh, he went to a hotel, alright, it just wasn’t ours.”</p>
<p>“Oh no,” Elena said, realising what that meant. “He’s our ride home, he knows that, right?”</p>
<p>Nate shrugged lazily, “He usually finds his way back the next morning.”</p>
<p>They fell into comfortable silence, sipping their beers. Wherever they were, it was beautiful. They were so close to sea, Nate could smell the salt.</p>
<p>“What about you? Didn’t fancy sampling the local cuisine?” Elena asked.</p>
<p>Nate turned to stare at her in bewilderment, “<em>Sampling</em><em> the local cuisine? </em>What?”</p>
<p>“I’ll take that as a no,” Elena laughed.</p>
<p>“I’ve got everything I need right here,” Nate waved his beer bottle to encompass the view and then took a sip. “Besides, I couldn’t leave you in this hotel alone.”</p>
<p>“I’m sure I’d be fine.”</p>
<p>“You never know.”</p>
<p>Elena finished the last drop of her beer and placed her empty bottle on the table. She rubbed the goosebumps off her thighs. Nate wrapped his arm around her shoulders, rubbing her arm to warm her up.</p>
<p>She stood up abruptly, “Come on then.”</p>
<p>Nate looked at her outstretched hand, blankly.</p>
<p>“It’s late, let’s go to bed.”</p>
<p>“Elena, I never thought I’d say this, but we can’t go to bed together.”</p>
<p>She rolled her eyes, “Just to sleep.”</p>
<p>“Even worse.”</p>
<p>“You need sleep, Nate. You were almost eaten alive, you got shot at, you dangled from a helicopter.”</p>
<p>Nate shifted uncomfortably, “I don’t sleep, it’s fine. I’ll pass out on the boat tomorrow.”</p>
<p>“Or, and hear me out on this, you could stop arguing with me and come to bed.”</p>
<p>“Elena-”</p>
<p>“For me,” she said, sincerely. She dropped her hand and rubbed some warmth into her arms. Her shoulders hunched almost self-consciously, “I don’t want to sleep alone.”</p>
<p>Nate felt his heart twinge. Elena looked so vulnerable in her cotton shorts and her goosebumped arms. If it was an act, it was working, because Nate couldn’t resist a woman in need. He stood up, reluctantly, and Elena gave him a small smile.</p>
<p>He took her hand when she offered it a second time, and she lead him into her hotel room. She headed to one side of the bed while Nate kicked his boots off.</p>
<p>“No pjs?” Elena asked, as she slipped between the sheets.</p>
<p>“What does a person who doesn’t sleep need pyjamas for?”</p>
<p>“Good point.”</p>
<p>Nate got into bed in his t-shirt and jeans because he wasn’t about to strip off in front of Elena. He lay awkwardly in bed. He’d never felt so uncomfortable before, and he’d been in some uncomfortable positions in his life. Elena shifted closer.</p>
<p>“Relax,” she said, softly.</p>
<p>“I can’t.”</p>
<p>Elena rolled onto her side to face him, her head inches from his. He could feel her eyes on him. He wished he had his journal so he could draw something, anything, her, to distract himself. He could already feel the thoughts pushing into his mind – the things that had chased them, Eddy Raja, Navarro, El Dorado. He turned his head to look at Elena.</p>
<p>“Go to sleep,” he whispered. The darkness made him quieter, made everything softer. If he just watched her, he could forget about the things he’d seen. His hand searched for hers under the covers. He gave it a comforting squeeze when he found it.</p>
<p>She nodded, her eyes already drifting closed. She just needed someone to be with her, to remind her that the things that had chased them weren’t here. They were shot, they were trapped miles below the earth.</p>
<p>“You’re safe,” he said, softly.</p>
<p>He watched her fall asleep. He saw the moment her breath evened out, her chest rising and falling rhythmically. He admired her long lashes, her lips slightly parted, her hair curling against her neck. This close to her he could smell her shampoo.</p>
<p>But he couldn’t sleep. He could hear gunshots and shouts. Even with Elena’s hand loosely clasped in his, he couldn’t stop thinking about El Dorado.</p>
<p>He had to make the short jump back to his balcony, grab his journal, and sketch this moment before it was lost. He eased himself away from Elena, carefully slipping his hand free. She shifted, her hand catching his again before he could leave.</p>
<p>“Don’t go,” she said, sleepily.</p>
<p>“I don’t even have a gun, I can’t protect you-”</p>
<p>Elena shook her head, looking at him from under her lashes, “I don’t need protecting, I just need...”</p>
<p>She trailed off but the word was clear. The unspoken word hung between them, heavy in the dark room. <em>You. </em>She had been going to say it, but she’d changed her mind.</p>
<p>“I need company,” she backtracked.</p>
<p>“I don’t sleep, Elena,” Nate insisted.</p>
<p>“Lie down.”</p>
<p>“I really don’t sleep.”</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” she opened her arms to him, and he tentatively shifted back into bed. She rested an arm over his chest, bringing her head to his shoulder, her hair tickling his neck. “You don’t have to sleep, just lie down. Stay with me.”</p>
<p>He wrapped an arm around her to bring her closer. She was pressed against him, her breath warm on his skin. Her fingers traced slow patterns on the bare skin of his arm. Nate shut his eyes, focusing on the whorls and swirls and zigzags she drew. His mind kept slipping back to the U-boat, to seeing Sully get shot.</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” Elena whispered, her voice pushing the thoughts back into the night. “It’s okay.”</p>
<p>Nate consciously relaxed his screwed-up face. He took a deep breath. Then another. Her knees were pressed against his thigh, her waist under his hand. He could feel her steady breathing and he slowly made his own breathing match up. Her fingers traced across his skin lightly.</p>
<p>“I’m here,” she breathed.</p>
<p>He was warm and malleable and comfy. The thoughts were held back by her presence. Before long, Nate slipped softly into sleep, for the first time in a long time.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So I just replayed all four Uncharted games and fell in love with these two. I love the idea of Nate never sleeping well until he meets Elena. She completes him, and I love them!!! </p>
<p>Hope you enjoyed this little fluffy piece I wrote, please leave Kudos to encourage me to finish the other Uncharted fics I'm working on ;)</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>